Blackout pauses shoppers Tuesday

Equipment failure on an overhead power line was to blame for a Tuesday power outage along Spence Avenue and Harding Drive, Progress Energy officials said this morning.

The failure occurred at 4:57 p.m. and power was restored by 5:52 p.m, McNeill said. The outage affected 333 customers, said David McNeill of Progress Energy.

"We know it was an inconvenience, but we were able to get the power back on quickly," he said. "We were pleased to be able to get it back on line as quick as we could."

City Manager Joe Huffman said he had not received any reports of problems caused by the outage.

Huffman said he had spoken to one hotel owner whose business had been affected. However, he said the owner, who was at last night's Downtown Lights Up program, "took it in stride," and that the power was back on by the annual downtown event.